A WOMAN desperate for money to give her husband a warm welcome when he came home from prison stole three Easter eggs.

A WOMAN desperate for money to give her husband a warm welcome when he came home from prison stole three Easter eggs.

Claire Woolley, 25, sold them for &#xA3;3 - which she put straight in the gas meter, her solicitor, Brian Cross, said.

He told Flintshire Magistrates Court that the family had debts of &#xA3;25,000 and Woolley was due to see a debt counsellor to try to sort it out.

Woolley, of Lon Celyn, Connah's Quay, admitted stealing the Easter eggs from Spar in the Red Hall Shopping Precinct in the town on April 2 and was given a 12-month conditional discharge with &#xA3;40 costs and &#xA3;8.97 compensation.

The court heard that on her arrest, Woolley had tested positive for opiates - but Mr Cross said she was progressing well on a reducing methadone prescription.